The Green Bay Packers helped to cleanse the palates of fans with a whipping of the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Here’s a look at who I thought played well and who did not in Week 10:
Studs:
Aaron Jones
Apparently if you give the ball to Aaron Jones good things will happen. It seems that everyone had figured that out except Mike McCarthy. I don’t want to make too much of one game, but it’s clear if Aaron Jones gets the ball as much as he should, he’ll be one of the most productive running backs in the league.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling
MVS is a physical freak, but he’s starting to show traits of being a really good receiver even without his elite athletic tools. He’s catching the ball away from his body, his route running has been really strong, and he’s showing chemistry with Aaron Rodgers we’ve never seen from a rookie wide receiver. MVS has a bright future but his present is plenty promising.
Raven Greene
Greene was forced into action and answered the call. He had a great play in the red zone and nearly came away with an interception, and had a great run on the fake punt. With all the struggles the Packers have had at safety, they’ll give anyone who can give them production a chance and Greene made the most of that opportunity.
Duds:
David Bakhtiari
This is a tough one because Bakhtiari is clearly one of the best left tackles in the entire league. However, he struggled against Robert Quinn and Cameron Wake Sunday which is the first average performance we’ve seen all season. He’ll look to get back on track against the Seattle Seahawks.
Nick Perry
Perry had to leave the game with a knee injury and we will hope it is not serious, but his play this season has been incredibly poor. It may be a result of nagging ailments or it could be regression, but Perry is looking likely to be a salary cap casualty in the upcoming offseason.
Green Bay will look to recover quickly as they head into another very difficult game against the Seahawks on Thursday. Believe it or not, a win in Seattle could go a long ways to turning around the season, as a Green Bay win and a Minnesota loss could put the Packers in a Wild Card spot.
Andrew Mertig is a a lifelong Packers fan and draft enthusiast. He has covered the NFL draft for radio and television stations in Green Bay. He is currently a host of the Pack-A-Day podcast and a writer for PackersTalk.com. You can follow him on Twitter @andrewmertig
4 responses to “Green Bay Packers Week 10: Studs & Duds”
Regarding Aaron Jones….he had a great game against the Dolphins. A career game. Now the question is…how many more games like that will he have this season? Seattle, believe it or not, has a shakier run defense than Miami this year so if he could have another 100+ yards and a score it’d be a big help. And no turnovers, to go with Rodgers getting turnovers…..well, it helps a lot of your two main ball handlers don’t turn it over.
Bakhtiari did have a bad stretch there and had his hands full all day with a couple of pretty good players.
I hope Raven Greene helps and stays healthy. Tramon, bless his heart, hurt us twice in the first quarter. His fumble the end of the return was after his feeble attempt at a tackle tacked another 25 yards onto a run that should have been stopped far sooner. He had one tackle on the game, and zero passes defended. He’s not an upgrade on the field over Dix.
Since the offseason began, we released Burnett and planned to replace him with Jones, who was outplayed by Brice, and now Brice is hurt and Jones is in. We traded Dix away and replaced him with an old corner who had a reputation for not being a physical corner, and now he’s at safety?
We give away Hyde, we give away Burnett, we give away Dix…..and we’re not replacing these guys. That’s our safety story.
The run game at Seattle will prove huge. Number one, Seattle run defense is worse then the Dolphins, number two, the weather looks to be wet, number three, and will MM use Jones as the work horse? If we have good balance on offense we should be just fine. If we get one deminional with Rodgers arm we’ll be in trouble, as Rodgers has been off on accuracy and seeing open receivers. We need to move the chains and not send all receivers long! Have some crossing routes and checkdowns, with screen passes on the blitz. Also, I think the main key is keeping Wilson in the pocket and preventing play action and him running! Major issue still is can MM change??????? We will see the gameplan, which will please us fans or totally disappoint us.
Raven Greene was quite impressive against the Dolphins. He should see more playing time this Thursday because of injuries and may win himself a starting job at safety in a defense screaming for help at safety. We should have let Dix finish out the 2018 season.
When is Kevin King going to stay healthy. So far he’s another high pick in the secondary with no value. Alexander has really impressed me with his closing speed. He baits QBs into throwing in his direction and then breaks up the play with his speed and soon will have more interceptions.